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Egyptian mummification

Over 3,000 years, Egyptian mummification evolved as embalmers developed newer, more effective
techniques. Here are the basics:

The brain

• Embalmers chiseled through the bone of the nose, then inserted a long, iron hook into the
skull and pulled out the brain matter. Surprisingly, the brain was one of the few organs not
preserved.

The organs

• Embalmers made a small incision along the left side of the body to remove abdominal organs.
Only the kidneys were not saved. Then they cut open the diaphragm to remove the lungs. Organs were
washed, coated with resin, wrapped in linen strips and stored in decorative pottery.

The heart

• The Egyptians believed that the heart was the core of a person, so it almost always was left
it in the body.

The body

• Embalmers rinsed the empty chest cavity with palm wine to purify it. To maintain the body’s
form during drying, they filled the cavity with incense and other material.

Drying

• The body was covered with a powder that absorbed moisture. After 35 to 40 days, the body
cavity was filled with the powder and resin-soaked linen. Then, incisions were sewn.

Wrapping

• About 4,000 square feet of linen was stripped into bandages 3 to 8 inches wide. Then, the
entire body was covered in linen coated with hot resin.

Mention that you’ve scanned an Egyptian mummy, and it seems the International Skeleton Society
gets a little excited. Dr. Joseph Yu found his presentation quickly accepted to the society’s fall
meeting in Philadelphia, and he’s willing to bet his salary that his will be among the most-popular
talks.

That’s the thing about mummies.

“They’re interesting. Everybody loves them,” said Yu, a professor of musculoskeletal
radiology at Ohio State University. “They’re so full of information.”

Yu leapt when the Ohio Historical Society contacted the university to see whether someone would
scan its museum’s mummy. The ancient woman, believed to be at least 2,500 years old, had been
X-rayed in 1930 and 1984, but no one could find the film from those scans.

Now, Yu had access to what he called the “Lamborghini of scanners,” which could evaluate the
mummy down to the millimeter, creating three-dimensional images of the woman masked for centuries
by bandages. A nice change of pace from the usual patients who undergo CT scans.

“I thought it would be a tremendous opportunity to spread our wings (and look at) something
that’s not necessarily life-threatening,” he said.

In June, technicians spent nearly two hours scanning the mummy at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical
Center. They winnowed down 100,000 images to about 8,400 images that they pored over for months. Yu
said it’s like watching a movie again and again — something previously unnoticed pops up each time.
“There’s nothing like a mummy to make normal anatomy really fun again,” he said.

Researchers have employed CT scanners to uncover secrets of both the past and the present. A
few years ago, they used scans and DNA testing to determine that Egypt’s famed King Tutankhamun
likely walked with a cane, had a cleft palate and died after he broke his leg and contracted
malaria.

And last month, scholars who studied 137 mummy scans presented findings at an American College
of Cardiology meeting that showed that hardening of the arteries was common, especially among older
individuals. The suggestion: Heart disease might have more to do with aging than with poor diet.
Mummies didn’t exactly have access to Big Macs.

“We’re studying the many ways that humans have been in the past and may choose to be in the
future,” said Andrew Wade, an anthropologist at the University of Western Ontario.

“We get to learn about ancient health and the history of medicine and disease ... (and) what
it is to be human.”

Wade is so intrigued by the study of mummies that he has been working for the past five years
to build a worldwide database of their scans, beginning with Egyptian mummies. There are thousands
of such mummies in known collections and likely a great deal more in private collections, not to
mention inside Egypt itself, Wade said.

Most haven’t been scanned. So far, the database, set to launch this year, has 100 human mummy
scans with the promise of 100 more.

At Ohio State, the unusual scans are still a novelty. On a recent day, a doctor poked his
head into a room where lead 3-D technologist Darlene Meeks had scans pulled up on three computer
screens. One showed a body swathed in cloth, another a close-up of the skull with a hollow pathway
where the brain had been pulled from the head.

“Oh,” the doctor said, “are you doing the mummy?”

Yu said enthusiasm for the project continues to escalate, especially as researchers learn more
about their subject.He watched as Meeks ran a short animated video in which the viewer goes deep
into the mummy’s nose to the back of the skull. Another click, and she was flying through the
tunnel created by the mummy’s clenched left hand.

She clicked on scans of the mummy’s mouth: “This is an amazing set of teeth,” Yu said. And her
back: “Beautiful-looking spine.”

This woman is 2,500 years old, maybe older, and yet she’s easily recognizable. Her anatomy is
the same as ours, Yu said. But she comes with both a mystery — museum curators don’t know who she
is — and a story, told through the bones and tissue she left behind.

“Most people, when they think about mummies, they think about the scary part from science
fiction” movies, Yu said. “But they all once upon a time were living beings ... they give us a very
informative, retrospective view of what the past was.”

Joseph Yu will speak about the mummy findings at 2 p.m. on April 26 at the Ohio History
Center, 800 E. 17th Ave.